In my analysis, China must open her eyes to Doomsday Revelation shared by Doom Dooma Doomsayer. In my view, Beijing awaits catastrophe, disaster, calamity, cataclysm, apocalypse, or Doom as described in The Book of Revelation, Chapter 18.

In his pursuit of the Chinese dream and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, President Xi Jinping has relentlessly tightened Party discipline and its grip on society. He has launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a project to vastly improve connectivity on land and at sea between Africa, the Middle East, and Europe through the construction of highways, airports, rail, and ports to facilitate trade and commerce between continents. It is hoped that Chinese investment in 64 countries would facilitate the flow of goods, minerals, gas, and foodstuff to China to keep its domestic economy humming and strengthen its outward power projection.

Under Xi, China has asserted its claims of sovereignty over the South China Sea not only through words but by concrete action. It is constructing artificial islands, which are being weaponized.

Xi’s China makes another claim of sovereignty over cyberspace. It is succeeding to a surprising degree. What information goes out of China and is allowed into the country is monitored and controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. Other authoritarian regimes are following suit.

China makes another claim of sovereignty. This time it is over Tibet’s spiritual space. Whether the Party will succeed or not is another matter but its determination to do so is clear from a number of projects and policy directions.

In 2007, the Party issued a directive “the management measures for the reincarnation of living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism.” It is also known as order number five. Reincarnating Tibetan lamas must submit a “reincarnation application” to the Party for their reincarnation to be “approved.”

In 2016, China launched an online database of all reincarnating Tibetan lamas. Those not on the database are not “living Buddhas” in the Party’s eyes. And the Dalai Lama is not on the database.

Here the Party is confronted by the Dalai Lama dilemma. The Party wants the 15th Dalai Lama but not the 14th, who some senior cadres “ordered” him to reincarnate. In pursuit of this goal, the Party is moving aggressively in areas and countries that were not the fields of activities of the United Front, a Party organ considered its “magic weapon.”

Mongolia is the new field of activities of the United Front. These activities are made easier because Mongolia, a vast landlocked country with only two neighbors, China and Russia, is beholden to its powerful and dynamic southern neighbor for its economic wellbeing. China is exploiting this Mongol vulnerability to “guide” Mongolia in its selection of Khalkha Jetsun Dampa, Mongolia’s highest reincarnate lama, whose previous reincarnation lived in Dharamsala for many years. China wants Mongolia to select the next reincarnation without any consultation with the Dalai Lama.

But the problem for China is that the Dalai Lama is enthroned at the very top of Tibet’s spiritual hierarchy. Reincarnating lamas’ spiritual legitimacy and acceptance by people, be they Tibetans, Mongolians or throughout the Buddhist Himalayan belt, derives from his recognition.

But China makes no pretense of its game plan in playing in Tibet’s spiritual realm. It is promoting the Beijing-appointed Panchen Lama, creating important platforms for him to gain wider acceptance. It is also promoting the late 10th Panchen Lama’s daughter in the hope she will throw her father’s spiritual weight to the Party’s choice of the next Dalai Lama. Beijing has lined up and is grooming young Tibetan lamas to help it choose the 15th Dalai Lama and to show to the world that there is Tibetan Buddhist church’s acceptance of its choice.

In making this plan’s the Party hopes that without a shot being fired it could appropriate the crown jewel of Tibet’s civilization and along with it the worldwide goodwill the present Dalai Lama has created for Tibet and its culture.

The problem for China is that the concept of reincarnation is a matter of faith and cannot be imposed through administrative diktat. That faith will be guided by the actions of the heads of all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism and that of Bon, Tibet’s homegrown religion, who fortunately are all in India. Above all, it will be determined by the decision of the 14th Dalai Lama.

*Thubten Samphel is the director of the Tibet Policy Institute, a research center of the Central Tibetan Administration. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the TPI.